Just a Vapor

I believe that the Electoral College is an invaluable part of our political system, and that the Founders knew what they were doing when they created it. Those who supported Al Gore in 2000 would love to get rid of it, since he got less electoral votes, despite getting more popular votes. I disagree that that is a good reason to get rid of it though. If we got rid of the Electoral College, political candidates would only have to campaign in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and possibly a few other large cities in order to convince enough voters to give them the job of President. Talk about disenfranchising voters, everyone else in the country would be left in the dust.

The original intent of our system was that each state was a mostly sovereign entity unto itself. The Founders felt that the Federal Government should be to the states what the states are to the people. This is also why Senators were originally selected by state legislatures, rather than the people. They knew that if all Federal positions went to popular vote, the Federal government would grow to an enormous size and have too much power. The power was supposed to reside at the state level, and the Federal government was only supposed to ensure that State power wouldn’t get out of control.

I’m happy to see what Colorado is doing with their electoral votes, going to a system similar to Maine. I wish that the other 48 states would do the same. It doesn’t seem right to me that if a candidate can persuade 90% of New York City residents to vote for him, that the rest of the state of New York should have to give their electoral votes to him. Same with Washington votes being decided by King’s county (Seattle), California’s being decided by Los Angeles and San Francisco, or Illinois being decided by Chicago. Colorado is saying that if a candidate gets X% of the popular vote in their state, he gets X% of their electoral votes. In this election, this seems to be helping Kerry, as Colorado is typically a red state. That bothers me, but it seems like the right way to do it.

The Constitution Party platform calls for Electoral votes being cast in a similar manner. Each Congressional district would have a vote to see where it’s Electoral Vote goes, and each state would have a state-wide vote for it’s two state-wide votes. As a voter, you’d actually cast three votes: one for your district and two for your state. I’m not sure which method I like better, but both are superior to the winner-take-all system that 49 of our states have.

It should be mentioned that while the Constitution hints that the Constitution Party’s method is preferable, all methods are ultimately Constitutional. The important thing is that we don’t fall into the trap of letting 51% of the country decide how the other 49% will live. That’s what the entire Constitution was created to protect us against. True Democracy is nothing but Mobocracy, and is (historically) always a transitional form of government that takes a free nation to tyrannical rule of Oligarchy or Dictatorship.